Purple Diamond Marketing Blog

Website, Google Ad Words, SEO Campaigns, Email Marketing, Video Messages,  Social Media Sites, Blogs, QR Codes, Smartphone Marketing & Apps, Cloud Computing, On-line Malls and the list goes on and on! If your business is at least 20 years old there is a good chance that you never used any of the marketing technology that businesses are being asked to consider as essential today when you started your business.  Are you embracing the new tools you have to promote your business and see it as a marketing dream or headache for your business?

Chances are the answer to that question is a little of both and as a marketing coach I think that is a wise answer.  Though we all want to help our businesses succeed and gain strong market share, the “doing something because everyone else is doing it” is not a sound marketing strategy for your small or mid size business.  Consider the cost and weigh out the effectiveness of the various on-line marketing trends to see what makes the most sense to capture your target audience.  If you are busy writing a blog each day and your stats are low for readership and it doesn’t seem to be getting your website noticed or phone ringing, then this time might be better used in a more productive way.  However, if you are in a technical field that draws your targeted audience with quality content on a blog or by publishing white papers, then using time to write on-line could be essential for your business. The key is to measure results and analyze what is working and what you can afford.  To spend heavily to come up high in rankings on search engines without closing sales or to over burden your staff with phone calls that are “tire kickers” and not real prospects is not helping your bottom line.  But, if you are a small store and you lack walk-in traffic on a rainy day and you find that an on-line presence using Facebook and Twitter has helped drive prospects to your shopping cart on your website, then this new on-line marketing strategy is a “dream”!

Dream or headache or maybe it is both! Technology in marketing continues to move at a rapid pace and often we want to jump in and use it before we have even questioned if it is something that will help our business.  Attend seminars, talk with other business owners in your area, research on-line and consult with marketing and advertising professionals to help you decide what is “hot” and what is “not” for your business.  Technology will help you in your marketing, but be sure you know what technology tools are the best for your business and avoid the urge to use something just because others are and it is new!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Charlene St. Jean, Purple Diamond LLC

Many businesses have added a blog feature to their company website as a way to help with their on-line rankings with Google and other search engine sites.  Blogging is an excellent way to enhance  your on-line marketing, but the comments that are received from people who visit your blog might be hurting your rankings if they are from sites that have a reputation of spamming.  There are automatic spam solutions that are built in to many blog formats, but often there is still a small percentage of creative spammers who get passed these filters.  For this reason you should always make sure that you have turned on the comment moderation option so that you actually review the posters’ comment before accepting and adding it to your site.  Another way to cut down on SPAM is to not allow any hyperlinks in the comments left or have only people who actually are listed as approved followers be able to leave comments.

When the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was first launched I had a limited understanding of what were true comments or SPAM and I quickly got excited by the volume of comments being left on the site. Thankfully, I am surrounded by technical expertise and I quickly learned that what I was accepting for comments to my earliest articles were clear examples of SPAM and that I was hurting my site in rankings.  My technical team added the SPAM filters and instructed me on the importance of only accepting quality comments.  How do you know if a comment is a quality comment or SPAM? Well, if the comment is a random comment that is not specific to the content of your blog article or it is an advertisement for a product it is safe to say that this is a spam comment and should not be allowed on your site.  Some SPAMMERS use more sophisticated programs and offer comments that might be linked to keywords in your article or on your blog so be sure that the comment has direct meaning to the posted article they have commented on.  An example recently that I received that was clear SPAM started off with this message: ” I always read jewellry related blogs, but your blog contains nice information about jewellry”. Beyond the spelling error of the word “jewelry” within this comment, anyone who reads my Purple Diamond Marketing Blog articles know that it has nothing to do with jewelry.  “Purple Diamond” is  the name of my advertising agency/marketing coaching business, but my messages are geared towards offering helpful information about marketing.

The key to successful blogging as a marketing tool is to build interest in your company and the readership to your blog while offering a platform to interact with existing and potential customers.  Comments that are posted that will pull down your rankings because search engine sites identify them as sources that are sending bulk junk messages to numerous blogging sites will detract from your sites ability to come up higher in searches.  Be sure to have SPAM filters in place and delete any SPAM comments that get passed the filters that do not directly relate to your article!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

For years I wrote and helped produce TV commercial campaigns and enjoyed the success that my clients got from using video for advertising that offered sight, sound and motion.  TV advertising offers an emotional impact for the viewer that radio and print advertising is not able to match.  Today, with the help of sites like YouTube and Blogs, small businesses are able to harness that same emotional message in their marketing campaigns with on-line videos! Companies  can generate trust, emotion, excitement and create images that powerfully brand your business to a targeted audience by sharing out their video on various internet sites at a fraction of the price to do a TV Ad campaign.  Viewership may be lower than what a popular TV show offers, but with on-line videos you can still reach a targeted group and measure exactly how often your video marketing message is viewed.

If your business is looking to create video for the internet be sure to work with a marketing professional who will help you to secure a qualified production company. You do not want your relative or friend who likes to shoot home movies or take pictures creating your marketing video message. This is not the time to hire an amateur for an important job.  You worked hard on building a business and one poorly produced video could ruin that quickly.  Look for a marketing professional that has worked in TV advertising or corporate videos because they will know most of the  producers in the area and can often negotiate a better rate so that you are always getting the best value for your money.

Since you will be uploading this video to  the internet make sure the video includes your URL , has your logo included for branding purposes, has a description added to sites that offer this as an option, has a strong title with keywords that are searched so that people notice the video and want to watch it,  and don’t leave out a “call to action” in the message and try to keep the video to be no more than 2 minutes in length.  The shorter and more concise your message the better. Consider the average TV commercial is 30 seconds long because studies have shown that this is the ideal length of time in which most viewers will sit and watch a message. Obviously, if you have a truly entertaining video or one with exceptional information, then you will be able to hold the viewer’s attention longer than 2 minutes.

Marketing your business today requires businesses to be more creative in delivering a message.  The days of displaying your products in a store window or showing a picture of the product on a website are over.  It is essential for you to actively engage your audience and leave them with a lasting impression of your business and your brand!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

How “social” is your Social Media Marketing Campaign? Do you understand how to actually get business from  Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and your Blog? If you are using Facebook and other on-line sites solely to push marketing messages about your business you are missing a great opportunity to create an effective pull marketing campaign to your business with something as simple as being “social”.  Interacting with others on these sites is how you build a relationship of trust, but it doesn’t happen instantly. Much like a friendship that is developed over time and with shared experiences, so is your interactions on-line with these social sites like Facebook and Twitter and how you present yourself to the world in your Blog.

Years ago people had time to connect face to face, but with a competitive global market and a generation of people that grew up with fast food, automated services that focused on speed, and the internet that gave them information at their fingertips, the way we communicate has changed.  Friends are now meeting on Facebook to share that morning cup of coffee and chat instead of walking across the street to sit in a neighbor’s kitchen or driving to a local coffee shop to socialize with other people.  This means as a business owner you need to find a way to position your business to maximize the impact you have in the on-line social arena because this is where your potential clients are.  They are sitting at their computers or searching their smartphones for updates to Facebook and Twitter and reading blogs.   So, how do you connect with these people without being annoying by bombarding them with your need to sell your products or services?  The key is to create a genuine connection and relate to them as you would if you went to a party tonight and chatted with a group of people that you were just introduced to by a friend.  You do not start by selling your stuff or asking a list of questions that feels more like a job interview or an interrogation than a natural conversation.  Take the time to “listen” on-line which means read what others are posting about. Notice when it is someone’s birthday or anniversary and comment on photos and videos that are posted with a sincere remarks.  Show up daily and often to the social site and don’t be stingy with your own information or adding photos. When you are open to people they are open to you.  You are forming connections on-line so use common sense as to what you share on-line and remember to post only pictures that you would be fine with having people see in years to come.  Allow time to build real connections and do not be in a hurry to collect friends that you don’t even know.

It is an investment for your business to allow the process to take place and it requires effort and patience, but it is a great investment if you do it well and one that will help you to grow in the future with the on-line marketplace.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

I have never played a game on Facebook, but I have gotten several clients this past year from effectively using this social networking site.  So, why are some people getting clients and others are saying it is a big waste of time?  “Attitude and aptitude!”  If a person doesn’t believe that on-line social networking is important to the growth of their business, it is as good as a salesman who doesn’t believe in his product trying to sell it door to door. After the 7th door slams on the salesman’s face he drags himself back to the office and announces that no one wants the product and it can’t be sold, but other sales reps still sell it with ease.   Business owners who  tell people that they haven’t gotten any customers from Facebook are like that same salesman who quit.  What is the difference? Well, many business owners tell me they play games or spend time reading other people’s posts and never comment and are lucky to get on Facebook maybe 2 times a week and rarely post an update.  YIKES!!! This is not the attitude you need to be successful with on-line social networking.  A positive attitude and the belief that on-line social networking is an important new marketing tool that will help your business if used consistently and correctly is half of what you need.  This brings us to the other half, the “aptitude” part of how both navigate the sites and what to actually post while there.  There are a list of  “do’s and don’ts” that I share with my clients, but they can differ depending on the industry you are in and what you are trying to achieve from using these sites.   For instance, for many businesses I warn that playing games or tending “farmVille” on Facebook is not the best use of your social networking time, but if you were an internet company about to launch a new on-line game this could be exactly where you want to be since your potential market is drawn to these programs.   Another “don’t” that I share with my clients is to stay clear of any topic that is political or religious based or could prompt people to be polarized in their views unless you are a political analyst or gain from taking a stand in such controversial discussions.  The “do’s” I tell my clients is to work on connecting with people and adding them to your personal page and to your business “Fan” page which has recently been renamed to the “Like” page.  If you are trying to expand your reach, why limit your contacts??? Unless you are saying no to a direct competitor, I would be inviting people to get to know you and your business.  And, once you have them there, you have got to interact.  Think of it this way, you have just invited 50 people to your home and instead of greeting them at the door and introducing them to others, you have gone to your bedroom to take a nap and to allow the party to go on without you.  WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD!   The party is in the living room and it is filled with people who like you enough to show-up and they each know about 150-200 people and many of those people they connect with quickly with their own social on-line networking so if you are not being a good host, you just might lose out on a potential referral or introduction to key contacts.  Frequency of posting and interaction with other people when they post is how to use these sites well.  And, if your aptitude is such that you get confused when you are trying to navigate the various sites, then you need to call your kids in to the room and ask them for help because there are 10 year olds who are on Facebook setting up “event invitations” and  for their own birthday party or “surveys” for their school projects.  Your parents are posting photos of their grand kids and sharing them out to their friends so if you think that uploading a company photo to your business page requires your web designer, you are wrong….”tweet” or text your parents and ask for their help! And, if you still have not set-up a Twitter account and haven’t learned to text, please do so today.

I give one-on-one coaching to clients who are still struggling with the new technology, but every social networking site has a “help” section and commonly asked questions that will quickly make you an expert on how to gain the aptitude of how to navigate the site.  If you choose to embrace on-line social networking and have a positive attitude and a great aptitude for connecting with others and building your network, then you may be smiling as I did today when I received an email on Facebook with ANOTHER referral for my marketing services from one of the many contacts that are on my page!

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”